Agricultural Finance: Gov’t Strengthens Support Programme

EconomieAMINDEH Blaise ATABONG | 19-01-2018 10:23

A workshop has been organized to get micro-finance establishments understand and fund agricultural projects, especially value chain addition.

Officials of micro-finance establishments in the country are being equipped with methodologies on how to better understand the agricultural sector and finance it. A three day workshop organized by the Rural Microfinance Development Project (PADMIR) Phase II opened in Yaounde, Tuesday January 16, 2018.

According to the National Coordinator of PADMIR, Thomas Nkouenkeu, they are poised to contributing in alleviating poverty by improving the incomes and living conditions of rural populations through credit unions. He said most micro-finance institutions neglect the financing of agricultural ventures, especially those that have to do with value chain addition, because of lack of understanding of the prospects involved.

Against the backdrop of difficult access to finance by farmers, majority of them young people, Thomas Nkouenkeu noted that it was very important to have the immersion workshop with credit union authorities.

For three days, participants are being trained by two experts on how to estimate the demand of agricultural products through value chain finance. They are also being introduced to various strategies for risk management as well as how to identify and implement best practices on the design and distribution of target financial products on the needs of the targeted client.

Officials of PADMIR said they intend to facilitate access by rural populations to financial services that are appropriate to their needs in a sustainable way and to improve the level of banking and rural entrepreneurship.

It should be recalled government put in place the seven-year long (2017-2023) project to increase the banking rate of rural populations to at least 30 per cent. Moreover, the project seeks to ensure that over 15,000 rural entrepreneurs involved in agro-pastoral, fisheries and forestry value chains benefit from appropriate financing for the development of their activities through micro-finance institutions.